Enantioselectivity enolate anion reactions

Problem 1 stresses the use of appropriate bases for generating enolate anions. Problems 2-4 deal with selectivity issues encountered in enolate anion reactions. The syntheses of TMs in Problems 5 and 6 require the selection of specific reagents to achieve chemo-, stereo-, or enantioselective carbon-carbon bond formations. 

The general reaction mechanism of the Michael reaction is given below (Scheme 4). First, deprotonation of the Michael donor occurs to form a reactive nucleophile (A, C). This adds enantioselectively to the electron-deficient olefin under the action of the chiral catalyst. In the final step, proton transfer to the developed enolate (B, D) occurs from either a Michael donor or the conjugate acid of a catalyst or a base, affording the desired Michael adduct. It is noteworthy that the large difference of stability between the two enolate anions (A/B, C/D) is the driving force for the completion of the catalytic cycle. 

The simultaneous use of urea, or thiourea [76] and DABCO catalyst was introduced by the Connon group for the addition of methyl acrylate and benzaldehyde [39]. The study revealed that, although both ureas and thioureas accelerated the reaction relative to the uncatalyzed process, urea was superior to thiourea in terms of stability and efficiency. Chiral thiourea derivatives may offer, however, superior enantioselectivity. It was postulated, that the catalysts operate mainly via a Zimmerman-Traxler-type transition state 69 for addition of the resulting enolate anion to the aldehyde (Scheme 5.15). 

Silyl enol ethers react with aldehydes in the presence of chiral boranes or other additives " to give aldols with good asymmetric induction (see the Mukaiyama aldol reaction in 16-35). Chiral boron enolates have been used. Since both new stereogenic centers are formed enantioselectively, this kind of process is called double asymmetric synthesis Where both the enolate derivative and substrate were achiral, carrying out the reaction in the presence of an optically active boron compound ° or a diamine coordinated with a tin compound ° gives the aldol product with excellent enantioselectivity for one stereoisomer. Formation of the magnesium enolate anion of a chiral amide, adds to aldehydes to give the alcohol enantioselectively. 

Fluorine substitution is obviously valuable for improved enantioselection in the ammonium-catalyzed alkylation in the biphase system. However, it is not clear to estimate which factor, the electronic or steric effect, is more important in each reaction. The remarkable enhancement of both yield and enantioselectivity by the substitution of two phenyl groups on the 3- and 5-position of the phenyl group (R = Ph in 46b and R = 3,5-diphenyl in 46d in Table 5.5) suggests an importance of the steric effect and so the substitution of three fluorine atoms in 3,4,5-trifluoro compound (46e) may affect the enantioselection through the steric effect that arises from a Coulombic repulsion between the enolate anion of 47 and the lone pair electrons on fluorine atoms. The related non-spiro quaternary ammonium salt (53) is also usable for asymmetric alkylation of 47 [24]. 

When a ketone reacts with a suitable base (secs. 9.1, 9.2) an enolate anion is formed by removal of the a-proton. In the case of an unsymmetrical ketone such as 30, a mixture of (Z)-enolate (31) and ( )-enolate (32) usually results (secs. 9.2.E, 9.5.A). This mixture influences the diastereoselectivity and enantioselectivity of enolate condensation reactions (sec. 9.5). Such a mixture of geometrical isomers generates both syn- and antiproducts upon reaction with aldehydes so it is important to control or at least identify the geometry of the enolate. Several solutions to this problem have been developed, including formation of stable and separable enolate isomers and controlling reaction conditions to maximize production of one isomer. 

Kobayashi et al. also reported the improved chiral Znp2-catalyzed enantioselective Mannich-type reaction between acylhydrazono ester (113) and silyl enol ethers in water without using any organic cosolvent (Scheme 4.39). Moreover, TfOH was not neces sary in the system, and a cationic surfactant such as cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) (2 mol%) effectively increased the yield. In this catalysis with (116), syn and anti adducts (115) with high enantioselectivities were stereospecifically obtained from (Z)- and (E)-enolate, respectively. These Mannich-type reactions under aqueous conditions were based on the double activation of Lewis add and Lewis base (Scheme 4.40) (35). It was thought that a catalytic amount of the fluoride anion provided a high yield of the product fa these reactions, probably due to catalytic turnover of the fluoride anion. 

Catalysts 1 and 4 are reported to give the best results for the conjugate addition of thiophenol to 2-phenylacrylates (Scheme 6.2) [17]. The products were obtained with opposite enantioselectivity in the reaction with 1 and 4, respectively, as the catalyst. Based upon a computational analysis, it was proposed that the transition state for the reaction involves hydrogen bonding between the hydroxy group of the catalyst and the carbonyl group of the ester and asymmetric proton transfer from the thiol to enolate anion (Scheme 6.2). 

A chiral titanium(IV) complex has also been used by Wada et al. for the intermole-cular cycloaddition of ( )-2-oxo-l-phenylsulfonyl-3-alkenes 45 with enol ethers 46 using the TADDOL-TiX2 (X=C1, Br) complexes 48 as catalysts in an enantioselective reaction giving the dihydropyrans 47 as shown in Scheme 4.32 [47]. The reaction depends on the anion of the catalyst and the best yield and enantioselectivity were found for the TADDOL-TiBr2 up to 97% ee of the dihydropyrans 47 was obtained. 

Imidate esters can also be generated by reaction of imidoyl chlorides and allylic alcohols. The lithium anions of these imidates, prepared using lithium diethylamide, rearrange at around 0°C. When a chiral amine is used, this reaction can give rise to enantioselective formation of 7, 8-unsaturated amides. Good results were obtained with a chiral binaphthylamine.265 The methoxy substituent is believed to play a role as a Li+ ligand in the reactive enolate. 

Dicarbonyl donors bearing a thioester has been applied in the Mannich reaction to A -tosyl imines. Ricci presented an enantioselective decarboxylative addition of malonic half thioester 37 to imine 38. In the Mannich-type addition, catalyst 36 deprotonates the malonic acid thioester followed by decarboxylation to generate a stabilized thioacetate enolate. This stabilized anion reacts with facial selectivity to the imine due to steric-tuning from 36 [47] (Scheme 8). 

The utility of the creation of a y-lactone enolate through 1,4-addition of a carbanion and its interception by an electrophile has also been demonstrated in other classes of natural products, e.g., in the enantioselective synthesis of 10-oxa-l 1-methyl PGE2 analogues22. This synthesis starts with 1,4-addition of the sulfone-stabilized anion from 27 to ( + )-(S )-4-methyl-2-buteno-lide which has been prepared in three steps from (—)-(S)-l,2-epoxypropane. The intermediate enolate 28 is reacted with the acetylenic iodide to give the trisubstituted diastereomeric mixture of lactones 29, which is eventually converted into the pure compound 30, both reactions occurring with high diastereoselectivity. 

The chiral bis(oxazoline)/Cu(II) complex with OTf or SbFg as a counter anion effectively promotes the enantioselective hetero Diels-Alder reaction of enol ethers with acyl phosphonates to give chiral enol phosphonates as synthetically useful chiral building blocks [64] (Eq. 8A.40). 

I n 1993, the first cinchona-catalyzed enantioselective Mukaiyama-type aldol reaction of benzaldehyde with the silyl enol ether 2 of 2-methyl-l -tetralone derivatives was achieved by Shioiri and coworkers by using N-benzylcinchomnium fluoride (1, 12 mol%) [2]. However, the observed ee values and diastereoselectivities were low to moderate (66-72% for erythro-3 and 13-30% ee for threo-3) (Scheme 8.1). The observed chiral inductioncan be explained by the dual activation mode ofthe catalyst, that is, the fluoride anion acts as a nucleophilic activator of the silyl enol ethers and the chiral ammonium cation activates the carbonyl group of benzaldehyde. Further investigations on the Mukaiyama-type aldol reaction with the same catalyst were tried later by the same [ 3 ] and another research group [4], but in all cases the enantioselectivities were too low for synthetic applications. 

NaBHj/NiC or Raney nickel, the menthyloxy group is removed with NaBH /KOH to give 3,4-disubstituted butyrolactones with a high diastereo- and enantioselectivity (Figure 7.69). Corey and Houpis [1458] have described asymmetric Michael reactions of ketone enolates with a 2-thiophenyl crotonate of 8-phenmenthol. Chirality has also been introduced on the amino group of 2-ami-nomethyiacrylates to perform the asymmetric addition of the anion of the tert-Bu ester of cyclopentanecarboxylate [1459], More important developments have been reported with chiral a,p-unsaturated sulfoxides and nitro compounds as Michael acceptors (see below). 

These boron enolates can be considered as chiral nucleophiles wherein chirality observed in the products of the aldol reactions arises from the chiral auxiliary mandelic acid. An alternative approach to the diastereo- and enantioselective carbon-carbon bond forming reaction is to react an achiral anion precursor with an electrophilic equivalent containing a chiral auxiliary derived from mandelic acid. 

---